Several types of sanitary hose couplings are known to the art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,411, issued Jan. 5, 1993 to DuPont, Jr., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,291, issued Aug. 31, 1993 to Zornow. These devices, however, generally suffer from one or more undesirable traits. For example, bubbles or wrinkles tend to develop where the flexible hose enters the coupler, or the forces exerted in attaching the coupler to the walls of the flexible hose destroy the integrity of the hose itself Also, these couplers are difficult to assemble and disassemble quickly and easily.
The food processing industry in general, and the dairy industry in particular, is an area where the importance of sanitary working conditions cannot be understated. The equipment required for the production of food products slated for human consumption must been meet strict standards of cleanliness. Meeting these standards often requires labor-intensive maintenance. Equipment must, for example, be thoroughly scrutinized for the presence of minute cracks, tears, and the like, which provide areas where bacteria can grow. Such maintenance can be very expensive, both in terms of cost and time.
Of specific concern is the use of flexible hosing in the food industry to move liquid and particulate matter. For many applications, it is simply impractical to use solid piping. Thus, flexible hosing, which has a limited useful life span due to cracks and tears, is used extensively in the food industry. This hosing most often be attached to a wide variety of different types of equipment, such as solid piping, mixers, holding tanks, pasteurizers, packaging equipment and the like. The means by which the flexible hosing is attached to these devices differs widely in the prior art.
For example, flexible hoses can be attached to a solid pipeline using a stainless steel fitting having a welded ferrule. The fitting is mated with the flexible hosing and the two are urged into tight contact using metal strapping. This approach, however, often results in the development of bubbles or wrinkles at the point where the flexible hose and the fitting mate. These bubbles and wrinkles provide areas where bacterial growth can occur. Thus, the presence of such bubbles or wrinkles renders the flexible hosing unacceptable according to many U.S. dairy industry standards. When such a bubble is discovered, the flexible hose must be repaired or replaced immediately.
Other types of couplings have also be used, albeit with limited success. In one type of coupling, a sleeve is placed around the outer diameter of the flexible hose and a stem is inserted into the inner diameter of the flexible hose. A mandrel is then forced into the stem, thereby expanding the stem and pinching the hose between the stem and the sleeve. While the results can be satisfactory, the mandrel often leaves internal marks on the stem. Also, if he force exerted on mandrel is too great, the hose wall can be damaged, thereby shortening the useful lifetime of the hose.
A problem common to all conventional couplers is their lack of adaptablility. For example, in time-sensitive manufacturing processes, such as cheesemaking, hoses must be changed often. Currently available hose couplers, however, are cumbersome and make it difficult and sometimes impossible to change to a different type of hose or hose size without using a different type of coupler entirely. This results in higher inventory costs (because more and different types of couplers are required) and lost productivity on the work floor.
The present invention addresses the shortcomings of prior couplers by providing a flexible hose coupler comprising a minimum of parts. The coupler is easily installed and removed with little or no damage to the flexible hosing. The coupler also complies with all current federal regulations relating to sanitary hose couplings for use in the food industry.